Editorial: Opinions that matter (updated)

Ms. Longrie was given space on the April 8, 2008 Pioneer Press editorial page to express her opinion about current events in Maplewood. Her effort is directed at discrediting Mr. Ahl in order to compare him unfavorably to her handpicked exemplar of a City Manager, Greg Copeland.

As timing would have it, last night a different opinion was expressed at the April 7, 2008 Council Manager Workshop by VeNita Schnebele, the Area President for Arthur J Gallagher, Maplewood's liability insurance agent. Ms. Schnebele was there with her colleagues to present some facts to the city council pertaining to today's board meeting of the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust (LMCIT), Maplewood's liability carrier.

According to Ms. Schnebele, LMCIT insures all but six of the 1800* cities in Minnesota, provides coverage, such as land use liability, that is not available from other carriers in the insurance market, and has for at least twenty years not dropped a city from coverage.

The LMCIT board is made up of city managers, mayors, and the like from cities covered by the trust. At today's meeting the board will decide whether to drop Maplewood's coverage, or send a lesser message by some action like a four-fold increase in deductible with a substantial premium increase.

Near the end of last night's workshop Ms. Schnebele made Mr. Copeland's role in this decision clear. Here is a 2:45 clip.



Professionals whose job is to evaluate the liability experience and exposure created by a city's management, whose job is to use that evaluation to decide whether to insure and how much to charge virtually every city in Minnesota, had decided to take the unprecedented action of dropping Maplewood's insurance had Mr. Copeland stayed in charge.

That is an opinion that matters.

Stephan

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[Update 4/8 2:45 PM]

* According to Mr. Ahl's memo in documents obtained today

LMCIT is limited by legislation to cities under 50,000, although a city that enters LMCIT under 50,000 may remain with the group. There are currently 815 cities covered by LMCIT [Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Rochester are not], plus the over 350 Joint Powers organizations.